


Little Al

by Spirit_catcher



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Hinny, established Hinny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 06:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13875318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spirit_catcher/pseuds/Spirit_catcher
Summary: Bedtime for James and Al, and revelations for their family.





	Little Al

James had just started school, but he wasn’t too old for stories yet.  
“Dad?”, he called hopefully as his dad ran past his room in the direction of the front door of their one-story house. But he’d seen the express owl arrive just minutes earlier from the Ministry, and knew his dad had had to leave for an afterhours auror callout.   
“Mum?”, he said hopefully, catching her just in time before she … Ginny smiled tiredly but kindly, and held a hand for the book and an arm for James to snuggle into as she joined him – in a rather cramped manner – in his bed. But then Lily started crying from her baby room down the hall, and his mother sighed and kissed his forehead before getting up to see what the youngest Potter needed. James guessed it was feeding when his mother didn’t return within 10 minutes. 

James sighed. He wasn’t ready for bed without a bedtime story. He looked without much hope over to the other bed in the room he shared with his brother. Al was already under the bedcovers, but James could see that his green eyes were still open. James’ shoulders slumped; whom was he kidding? Al was 4-years-old but hardly spoke a word. His parents had explained to him that it didn’t mean Al was stupid, just that he didn’t like to talk a lot. James still thought Al was stupid.

As though Al had heard this, the younger brother got out of bed, put on his dressing gown (James never bothered, and he’d never really got why his brother always followed that instruction without fail from his mother), and came and sat on the edge of his older brother’s bed. Al held out his hands for the book, ignoring James’ raised eyebrows, and took it off him when the book wasn’t offered. James was still too busy dealing with the surprise and disbelief he was feeling when Al began to read from the first page.

That was how Harry found his two sons a later, Al reading to James, the latter slumped back peacefully on his pillow. They were several pages into the book, and Al had gotten over his initial faltering and stumbling. He had been reading for a while now, but this was his first time reading aloud to someone else. Harry was torn between getting Ginny, getting Hermione (who else would have experience with this?), and waiting to see how long this continued. He was just about to settle with staying there and seeing how things panned out, when Al looked up.

The youngest son’s eyes widened first in shock, and then with what Harry really hoped wasn’t fear; he and Ginny had always tried to never make Al feel different. Though as the son who resembled his famous father, this had admittedly been difficult on the few occasions he and Ginny had taken the kids into frequented sites in the wizarding world (Harry hadn’t liked being raised by the Dursleys, but as a father he agreed with Dumbledore that the less exposure to fame and attention, the better. But he and Ginny still raised the kids in the world of magic, and made sure they knew his story (as far as any wizarding child of their age did). 

But here was Al, now staring with definite trepidation at what Harry could only assume was the dumbfounded look on his own face. He tried to imagine how he would feel if he had been looked at with such an expression when he was a child, and immediately tried to arrange his face into something more neutral. Failing at this, he knew he only had so long to show his youngest son that he was impressed and not alarmed, before the little boy closed himself off again. Perhaps for good, this time, he thought. But no, he couldn’t and wouldn’t allow that to happen. So he quietly joined the two boys, sitting cross-legged on the floor with arms and head resting on James’ bed, listening to Al resume reading. 

He was so engrossed in not alarming Al, that he missed Ginny arrive in the doorway to the bedroom. He did manage to turn his head just a little to see her discreetly gesture that she would be back soon, and not to move. With that, she was gone again. 

He guessed she had gone to get Hermione, and he’d guessed correctly. Ron had tagged along, too, but Ginny silently elbowed him out of view so it was just Hermione and herself visible in the doorframe when Al stopped reading and looked up later. 

Harry watched his youngest son’s eyes move between his mother, Aunt Hermione, and to his dad, before the young boy began to chew his bottom lip.   
“Are you mad?”, he asked, but with less hesitancy than Harry had been expecting. Harry shook his head firmly, as did Ginny. Hermione came and sat next to him on the bed, grinning so broadly that even Al grinned back.

“Where did you learn to read?”, she asked excitedly, and Harry was a little alarmed to hear the barely-concealed squeal behind her question. Hermione had always been the teacher-model out of all of them, even with her own 4-year-old daughter. Ginny rolled her eyes at Harry and put her arm around James, who was looking a little left out at this point from all the positive attention Al seemed to be getting now.   
“I can read now, too”, he said, a little defensively.  
“I know”, Ginny said, kissing the top of his head. “And we’re all very proud of you, too. We are just surprised Al can read, too, when he hasn’t been to school yet.”   
“Maybe he learned from me”, James said, now sounding definitely put out. Seeing this, Al nodded and generously added, “I did learn from James. And everyone else who can read. I learnt from looking at the words as you read them to me, so I learned what words and different sounds look like. Then I kept finding more and more words to learn. But I still don’t know how to read all words”, he added, a little wistfully.   
“No one knows all the words there are, Al”, Harry reassured, “Not even Aunt Hermione knows all the words.”   
“Really?”, asked Al hopefully. He slid off his brother’s bed and clambered onto his dad’s lap, leaning into the embrace.  
“Nope”, said Hermione, shaking her head and smiling. Al instantly looked reassured. He grinned again and hugged his dad back much harder this time. Ginny reached out and stroked his messy black hair, James still attached to her other arm.

“Am I allowed to come in yet?”, Ron demanded from the hallway. Everyone just laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> So my original author notes on my deviantArt submission for this back in 2013 are laughable now that Cursed Child has come out... Not that I like acknowledging Cursed Child...
> 
> "I guess I see a lot of myself in Al. So in this quick (and so far unedited, because I really should be getting on with an assignment!) fanfic, I have put something of me into Al.
> 
> And to ask the question of all questions when it comes to Albus Severus Potter... I don't think he would be in Slytherin. But I also like to think he wouldn't just be in Gryffindor, because that would be expected of him as the son of Harry Potter.  
> So how about Ravenclaw? Especially in this fanfic.
> 
> (Yes, I know his initials are the name of a snake, but that doesn't change what I think)"


End file.
